The customer is the government of Mexico, which will payLockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services an undisclosed amountto fly its Moralos 3 communications satellite in 2015.

"I'm sure it was a very competitive offer," said LockheedMartin spokeswoman Joan Underwood.

The company also has commercial contracts with DigitalGlobe Inc for two Atlas 5 launches to fly its WorldView 3 andGeoEye2 satellites.

The last commercial Atlas launch was for Intelsat Corp in November 2009, Underwood said.

The primary customer for Atlas 5, as well as Delta 4rockets, is the U.S. military. Both boosters are manufactured byUnited Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin andBoeing Co.

Until privately owned Space Exploration Technologies beganselling commercial launches on its Falcon boosters, satelliteowners and operators took most of their business to Europe,Russia and other countries.

The California-based firm, known as SpaceX, has a contractwith NASA to fly cargo to the International Space Station, aswell as a backlog of more than 40 other Falcon rocket flights onits manifest for commercial customers and foreign governments.

SpaceX is working to break United Launch Alliance's virtualmonopoly on flying military satellites as well.